mom-and-pop
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to a small retail business, usually owned and operated by members of a family.
a mom-and-pop grocery.
-
of or indicating something, as an enterprise, investment, or project, that is independent, small in scope, and modestly financed.
noun
plural
mom-and-popsEtymology
Origin of mom-and-pop
An Americanism dating back to 1950–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
While many ski towns have spent years mourning the rise of corporate conglomerates swallowing mom-and-pop owners, a growing faction in Telluride was pushing in the opposite direction.
So, it created a new subsidiary called GenCo, whose sole purpose would be to serve the biggest customers, keeping the impact away from their normal mom-and-pop customers.
From Barron's
But this is a good place to start, and it still lets mom-and-pop landlords or investors who own less than 50 properties to take advantage of the tax break, he said.
From Los Angeles Times
"Consumers are not buying much more than they were; but they've shifted their purchases from mom-and-pop stores to branded outlets."
From BBC
This growth has, however, come at a cost to local mom-and-pop stores on the high street.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
